I've been playing Hearthstone. It's been a long time since I've played anything card game related and I'm liking it quite a bit. I like the art style and the simplicity of how it plays. I like how every card is easy to understand and has unique voice clips. I love the subtle animations and buffs/debuffs are easy to see. It's a highly enjoyable game even if I suck at it and don't have the cards to make a good deck. Luckily, with they way you can earn in game gold, you can get a new pack of cards every 2 to 3 days without having to pay a single penny for them. Anyone that is into M:TG might want to give it a look. It's also handy for keeping my desires to play WoW again in check as it gives me just enough of a taste to keep me satisfied. The biggest problem I have with the game is that it's keeping me from working my way through my backlog on steam.

Yeah, I'm sure Shadow of the Colossus is a great game, but it's not for me. Boss fights have always been one of my least favorite parts of games. I could not get the hang of it, didn't know what I was doing, and wasn't really enjoying myself. I thought about persevering to see if I could get a handle on its gameplay and would grow to like the game. But then I saw that the Playstation Store had a deal on Rockstar games and that the complete Red Dead Redemption bundle was 12.50 Euros so I went for that.

Only played for a little while but man, that game is Fun with a capital F! So much freedom, so much stuff to do, such an interesting game world. Just simply riding around on a horse admiring the scenery, or riding around hunting animals is so much fun. This will tide me over for a good while. After I'm done with the main game, which will take a long time, there's Undead Nightmare. I don't regret purchasing this at all.

Finished Thief (2014) last week, and in stark defiance of what many original Thief series fans have written - I liked it. It was a new game, and it had little glitches, as are likely to occur when you play a game before everyone else has already found the bugs and bitched enough to get them fixed. There are a few annoyances, but to me they aren't that bad. Mostly around the guards talking and saying the same lines over and over, and people in houses you can eavesdrop on doing likewise. I'd like to see more lines added and greater variations entered into their loops.

Despite that tough, I found the City hub to be vibrant and full of night time life, with plenty of places to sneak into and out of, the missions and the side missions were good. The story held me.

I'm not a hater!

I've already been told I'm wrong. So be it!

Now I'm playing through The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, which was gifted me on GOG, and the latest DLC for Bioshock Infinite, Burial at Sea: Episode 2. The first is enjoyable because while I like the style of point and click gameplay, most of the actual games drive me batty because of the illogic of the puzzles they often have. Chains of Satinav is clever and has difficult puzzles, but the solutions usually make sense.

As for Burial at Sea EP 2, the only thing I can say, because I've played very little of it could best be put by Neo. "Woah"

Tomb Raider (2013) is a good game both on PS4 and PC, from what I can tell. It doesn't take much to match and exceed the PS4 when it comes to PC hardware for playing the game. After all, Laura automatically has better facial expressions in the PC version.

I recently beat Dark Souls (what a horrible port job they did with the PC version...). It's a frustratingly fun game but I'll be damned if the notoriety the game gets for being so difficult isn't due entirely because of horrifically awful controls. The game makes a point of punishing you for clicking the buttons in any manner other than slowly and methodically. For instance, if you hold forward and the run button and then click the button to roll you roll and that that's. But, if you hold forward and the run button and then click the button to roll AND the button to put both hands on your sword (ie. put away your sword) you dude doesn't do both at the same time, he rolls and then after the entire animation for rolling happens he then STARTS the animation to put both hands on the sword. What this means is that if you frantically click any buttons the game memorizes what you've clicked and then executes the command in sequence.

THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER DONE EVER EVER EVER.

No game that I've ever played does this. Diablo doesn't do this, Legend of Zelda doesn't do this, Tekken doesn't do this (to cover common titles of different genres that require quick button pressing). Game makers are fully aware that when you're about to be squished by a giant axe the size of a house you, as the player, are going to click the "dive away" button a thousand times per second to escape AND that as long as the first animation is happening all of the consecutive button mashes will not be put into an execution queue. The makers of Dark Souls said, "You know what will totally f**k with gamers to the point where we'll actually get press for having such a difficult game? Making the player fall off of a cliff a thousand times because he happened to click the A button three times quickly instead of two time slowly and methodically. You know... like no game, ever."

To prove this point I beat the game a second time immediately after beating it the first time. When you beat the game the first time you get to start the game again, with all of your stats and equipment, but the new game now has enemies that can kill you more quickly (though, for some reason you can still kill them as quickly as before). I beat the game the first time in about 68 hours. I beat the game the second time - doing just as much as I did the first time - in ten hours (note: there aren't really any cut sequences to skip that would make a second play through significantly quicker). This proves that the running time of the game is based entirely on the fact that constantly dying and having to run through the same f**king spot over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... (inhales) and over and over and over, is what makes the game what it is. The game is basically nothing without its difficulty and it's difficulty is entirely artificial.

Dark Souls creators: you made a phony game and tricked us all into thinking that it's special for any reason beyond the trick itself.

One Fan To Another wrote:This proves that the running time of the game is based entirely on the fact that constantly dying and having to run through the same f**king spot over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... (inhales) and over and over and over, is what makes the game what it is. The game is basically nothing without its difficulty and it's difficulty is entirely artificial.

Or, you know, that it's a mostly open, free-roaming world that you get to explore at your own pace, and knowing exactly where to go and what to do makes it a hell of a lot easier. The game is the experience of gaining that knowledge, of figuring everything out and conquering it, when it does very little to help you along the way. The game/series is, in fact, very special for that.

jacobvandy wrote:Or, you know, that it's a mostly open, free-roaming world that you get to explore at your own pace, and knowing exactly where to go and what to do makes it a hell of a lot easier.

What? There's no point where you have to figure anything out. The game is completely without complication. You go in direction A, kill guys along the way, kill the boss and the end of A, and then go in direction B. If you go in direction C first, the game is stupidly difficult (but still doable) and then you get to a yellow wall that tells you that you went in the wrong direction. Then you back track and pick a new direction. It's stupidly simple with almost no plot. All I really play games for is plot. It's why I basically only play RPGs.

jacobvandy wrote:The game is the experience of gaining that knowledge, of figuring everything out and conquering it, when it does very little to help you along the way. The game/series is, in fact, very special for that.

So, it's a paradox? Bethesda had all but mastered the "go anywhere, do anything" thing, years ago. There's nothing special about a game that is kinda-sorta' open world (Dark Souls really isn't. It's a dungeon crawler. The only open aspect is that there are five-ish paths and you can chose at any time but you get stopped part way through if you picked the certain ones too early), and doesn't give you a lot to go on as to what to do, exactly. I mean, come on, you think Dark Souls is "special". Like, Final Fantasy VII special? Baldur's Gate special? Super Metroid special? Calling a game a special experience should be reserved for the most classic titles, not some game known only because there are countless death montages of it on YouTube.

Dark Souls is a dungeon crawler through and through. What makes it stand out is it's sheer difficulty. And, most of it's difficulty is garnered through artificial means. Over come those means and you're left with much of nothing. There's no story to relish, not a lot new to discover, and the game is now easy - relieving the player of what compelled him/her to play in the first place. Plus, and you have to admit this, basically every enemy is defeated by running around it like a jack-ass and striking it from behind.

Remember, I started the post off by saying that Dark Souls is fun. I don't dislike the game. But, if the game had the controls of, say, The Witcher 2, it'd be a twenty hour game that would have a tenth the infamy, and little of the praise. It doesn't even have a ounce of replayability unless you want to hack it out with online players, which you can still do during your first play-through. And, since the game auto-matches you with players of equal level you never get an upper-hand, defeating any real point of bothering.

I'm playing Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. It's fun, the controls take some time getting used to but I like it so far. They do a good job revealing the story as it goes along, keeps me guessing at what the stakes really are.

It's slightly clunky in places, some weird animations and slightly sub-par voice acting by some characters (I mean it's pretty good, but not as good as, say, Red Dead Redemption, the game I'm playing on the PS3), but I'm still enjoying it and so far I think it's a worthy successor to The Longest Journey. Not sure I like the new surly, disagreeable April Ryan (I believe that was also Smitty's main criticism of the game), it will depend on what the reason for her grumpy, negative attitude is, which I haven't found out at this point in the story. No spoilers please.

Picked up the playable Grim Dawn build-in-progress on Steam yesterday. I haven't spent a lot of time with it but it's pretty much a re-skinned Titan Quest so far. That's not necessarily a bad thing and I'm sure there are some changes and additions as you get in further into the game.

Unfortunately, I find myself a little turned-off by the graphics and presentation so far. It's in-development yet so some of the presentation stuff may yet improve but the core 3D engine probably won't. I find myself having the same reaction as with PoE: the game is not but the look of it just leaves me feeling a bit "meh" on the whole thing. The graphics aren't utterly terrible but something just doesn't look right either. I generally don't consider myself a graphics snob, but something about these is bothering me.

Anyways... For those who were big fans of Titan's Quest (gameplay and system-wise at least), it'll be something to keep an eye on. Or pick up now, as it's seems perfectly playable for the first 2 acts now. It looks like they're just adding content (more acts, another class, higher level, etc) as they go on rather than changing any of the fundamentals so you could start with it now and view it as a chapter released game of a sort.

As life has shifted me away from gaming somewhat, it's been a joy to fire up the occasional gem. Just recently began Bioshock Infinite and am absolutely loving it! I hear the DLC packages take you back to Rapture before the fall, which is what I had envisioned for the series since playing the original. Other games I'm enjoying include Mario Kart 8 which I play with my kids, and the new Gauntlet that was just released on Steam. Gauntlet is crazy difficult on the hard setting, yet I can't bring myself to make it easier. Great fun that one. I'm also playing through Wind Waker on the Wii U and loving it. I don't think I've played a Zelda game since the days of Super Nintendo. May have to check out another when I'm done.

I really loved Bioshock Infinite too. It's beautiful game with some fantastic graphics. There were some parts up in the air that made my hands sweat because of the feeling of being so high up in the air. I love when a game does that.

I've also been playing Unreal Tournament 2004. Hard to think that it's a decade old. It holds up pretty well considering how much has changed since then.

After seeing and hearing about the amazing rigs that many people have on these forums; it seems rather silly for me to the specs of my very modest gaming PC. It works and that's good enough for me.

Halo 4 (via Master Chief Collection): So far, pretty much Halo as I expected it. I'm playing co-op over Xbox Live with my brother so I can attempt to socialize more with my brother, and it's good fun.

Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag: First assassins creed game I've played, and so far it's fun. My wife apparently likes to watch me play, and got sucked in for a while last night. Haven't played much, but looks good from what I can tell.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 (Final mix): Enjoying this one, as it's got a pretty good story so far, and the gameplay is fantastic (visuals look good on the HD remake). Playing this version as I didn't play it on the PS2 way back when.

Shadow of the Colossus HD: Music in this game is fantastic. Gameplay is fun, but can be frustrating at times when trying to figure out what to do. I've played it in 3D a few times and it adds some depth perception to the game, but otherwise the gameplay is the same. Unlike Prince of Persia, where in 3D it was hard to figure out where to go next sometimes, that wasn't the case here.

Bonus: Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite: I'm putting Tomb Raider on here as I loaded it up a new game on my PC just to see how it plays with all the settings turned up on my newish video card (got it back in the summer though, but beat it playing on an ATI 4850). So far it's holding up better, but haven't gotten to certain areas where it would stress the card much. Bioshock I just played a few minutes of it a few weeks back and haven't gotten anywhere, but so far looks good.

Restarted Dragon Age: Inquisition the other day... I began playing a dual-dagger rogue when it first came out, and that's fun, but I think I'm enjoying playing a two-handed warrior better. I spent so much time in the first explorable area (the Hinterlands) that I ended up at level 10 before even proceeding to the first story mission that is meant to be done around level 2-4, lol... But I was able to defeat that area's dragon, which is tucked away in the NE corner of the map and so isn't easy to stumble upon.

My first encounter at around level 7 involved being melted in seconds by fireballs he spat from the sky -- when first you enter his domain filled with rarer crafting materials and little baby dragons, he's just flying around harassing you -- but I came back later when I was stronger and made it to the arena where he lands. It was a pretty epic fight! I'm not really micro-managing my party much (the game just plain controls better with a gamepad, and tactical mode is too clunky without a mouse), so it got a little hairy about half-way through when he was summoning a bunch of dragonlings to harass my ranged guys, but eventually I whittled him down with the frankly somewhat OP whirlwind attack and looted the hell out of that giant corpse!

I progressed a good deal further on my rogue in the same amount of time (story-wise), but I completely missed what I have found so far to be the most enjoyable aspect of this game. There are apparently ten dragons in total, and knowing they're out there just waiting to be challenged has me fully exploring every area I go to, hoping to find that obscure corner of the map where one might be hiding...

I myself have been playing Life is Strange Episode 1. Meant to finish it back in December, but life... uh, life finds a way. Beautiful game, wonderful story, neat concept. The trailer kinda explains it all, you play Max an 18 years old girl who can rewind time. It's one of them adventure games like The Walking Dead and the story has just been completely engrossing.

There's so much teenage angst though and there's been quite a few moments where I was like "OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!" Haven't gotten a chance to finish episode 2 yet, but I started to replay/stream episode 1 for shiggles. What's neat is it uses the Unreal engine and there's moments where I can't help but revel in all the beauty of it all. It's just fantastic. The entire thing kinda has an indie film to it and I'll admit it took awhile for Max to warm up to me.

What's super neat is you can experience every possible outcome when you're given a choice. Say something and piss someone off? Rewind and see if the other option was better. It has the same Walking Dead's "So and so will remember your actions..." except its "This action will have further consequences..." It's pretty cool seeing said consequences ten or twenty minutes down the road.

I honestly can't recommend this enough if you like a good adventure game. It's just fantastic.

FUCK ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY. What a gigantic pile of shit. Even with the latest patch I'm getting awful performance, the game can't stop crashing, and even when it works the game is just boring as hell. It's repetitive with bland characters that don't develop and the combat is now slower and needlessly difficult thanks to how quality equipment and skills that have been a hallmark of the series are now gated behind an insufferable grind between three currencies in an effort to get you to purchase fucking microtransactions that are really just singleplayer cheats. The modern day metastory has been effectively removed, you don't feel central to the events going on around you like with other games, the controls still suck and are made worse with a broken cover mechanic that makes stealth even more worthless, and even the impeccably authentic interpretation of the French Revolution is made dull by having to slog through mountains of people and a Paris that amounts to nothing more than a gigantic pile of trash. There are three plot diversions in the game that I won't spoil that showcase much more interesting uses of Paris as a backdrop than with the Revolution.

Even when the performance works, the impressive graphics on display are aesthetically hindered by all the pollution, grime, and decay that feels so same-y that you can't really appreciate what's going around you because everything just blends together. The city is also so fucking big and with fast travel always being locked away until you effectively scale a church that it just takes forever to get to a mission or an objective. And to boot, there's so many useless and unrewarding side missions that just pad out the amount of time you have to waste to get good loot that I felt absolutely no desire to continue. This game successfully went back to its roots by emulating every single mistake that plagued the very first Assassin's Creed to a tee.

Ubisoft just needs to stop making open world games, or at least their idea of open world. Pretty much every AAA game they've been putting out follows a flawed design philosophy that amounts to a checklist of collectables, meandering objectives, padded cookie-cutter side-missions, tall buildings to climb, immense amounts of travel, and very little thought put into the mechanics other than "let's make this game world as real as possible" without actually asking if it's even enjoyable or makes any game design sense. I get it, Ubisoft are the masters at creating environments. Now make a fun game.

Thankfully that's the case with Assassin's Creed: Rogue, which is everything a good AC game should be. Play that and forget AC:U ever existed.

I've been playing Madden 15. Madden is the go-to game for sports fans.

Because this is the only football game, it's buy this or go home. The game itself is pretty good but it suffers from the occasional game-breaking glitch. Such as coaches ruling the wrong way on fumbles. And I mean game-breaking in that the wrong outcome can be decided because of said calls.

The game is bittersweet. Part broken and part fun. At least the graphics are good.

Finally got around to playing Wolfenstein The New Order and I can not stop thinking about it. The look and feel of that game was just phenomenal and the story, even though super cliché, was engrossing enough for me to want to get back to playing and finishing it ASAP. Short game, around six or so hours, but I immediately felt like replaying it again when I finished. Also I got to shoot nazis in space.

Due to Ronin's Windows 98 thread, I had to go ahead and play Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact. Took about a week or so to beat due to limited gaming time I get. Ran into some issues getting it to work on Windows 10, and wasn't ever able to get any kind of controller to work with the mapping I wanted to use, but luckily I was able to adapt to my modified control scheme. Still, Lara controls like a tank in these games, but luckily having precision controls isn't really required. It was still fun to play.

Now I'm back to playing Bioshock Infinite, which I'm pretty sure I started back in August but am finally getting back to playing.